Soil
cores from a field growing barley and barley mutants without root hairs under conventional
and minimum tillage were sampled. They were X-ray scanned to produce a 3D image
and then the roots were washed out and weight and length were determined by
conventional means. Root volume and surface area were then calculated from the
3D images using state of the art software and methodology, and the measured and
calculated measures were correlated. The only strong and significant
correlation was between measured weight and calculated volume for mutants
without root hairs. It is concluded that the software cannot segment out very
small roots, but segmentation accuracy also depends on root structure in some
unknown way. Any study using X-ray computed tomography to quantify roots as
they grow in situ should start with a
calibration for the conditions in question.